


run [i'm a natural disaster]

by optimusfine



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Angst, Community: hc_bingo, Disappearing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-03
Updated: 2011-09-03
Packaged: 2017-10-26 07:23:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/280331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimusfine/pseuds/optimusfine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i> it's hard to forget when his bed is too cold, his house is too empty, and there's an ache deep in his chest that just won't go away.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	run [i'm a natural disaster]

**Author's Note:**

> apparently this is how i deal with the 'claude moving out of danny's house' rumors. it's mostly just a bunch of word vomit in fic form, and it's highly emotional and choppy. title taken from the song of the same name by gnarls barkley; i recommend the instrumental version.

_Danny-_

 _I'm sorry._

 _-Claude_

\---

The ring is cold enough to burn his skin, ice cold, when he closes his fist around it the second before he tosses it out the window. The wind whips his hair around his face and obscures his vision with dark strands, so all he gets is a glimpse of the jewelry before it's gone.

The red velvet box shortly follows, a cloud of dust exploding it around it before he rolls the window up and the world goes blissfully silent.

\---

The boys know. There's no way the tears clinging to his dark eyelashes could be anything but, and the startling, prominent absence of Claude's anything in their house explains so much more than Danny thinks he ever could with words.

The reaction it causes is heartwrenching, the way Cameron's face just shatters-

 _He was always Claude's favorite._

-And there's a long, too long moment of silence before he's fallen to his knees on the carpet, not enough arms to give the hugs he wants to his youngests when they're launched against his chest.

He looks up over Carson's head at his eldest, who has a familiar, peculiar expression on his face, and Danny feels his heart stop when he realizes it's the same expression he's seen on his own face since he'd found the note, sitting so innocently on the kitchen counter.

Anger. Betrayal. Devastation. Confusion.

 _Heartbreak._

\---

It's offseason, which means that he doesn't have to see Claude for a few more weeks, and he's so grateful he could cry. He tries to call him a few times, but the phone goes straight to voicemail, and he hangs up without leaving a message.

He doesn't know what he would say, anyway.

 _Why did you leave us?_

 _Why did you leave **me**?_

 _Why won't you answer your phone?_

 _Are you ignoring me?_

 _I hope you're okay._

 _I hope you're happy._

And that's really what bothers him the most, if he thinks about it, which he's been trying not to do but it's hard to forget when his bed is too cold, his house is too empty, and there's an ache deep in his chest that just won't go away.

He'd thought Claude was happy. Hell, _he'd_ been happy. He'd been so happy, he couldn't believe it.

He snorts, bitterly, and slams the dryer shut with more force than he probably should have. The loud sound makes him jump, and he can't help but rub a hand roughly over his face with a shaky laugh.

 _You're losing it, Danny._

\---

He keeps the note. It's the only thing he has left of Claude besides memories and the ghost imprint of the younger man in their -- _his_ , dammit, Claude doesn't live there anymore -- house.

Sometimes, he thinks about moving. About leaving this house that is too big now, too big for him and the boys and the dogs.

He doesn't, though. Because there's a piece of him -- the whole of him, if he's being honest -- that wants to believe Claude will come back.

He wants to believe so much.

\---

Claude doesn't come back.


End file.
